Skydive Hall of Famer does tandem jump at 87

Dec. 13—Skydivers Hall of Famer Norm Heaton decided at age 87 to treat his great-granddaughter to a jump and join her in tandem, even though he had not leaped from a plane in many years.

Lauren Vasquez is a freshman at Texas Tech, and plans to get a doctorate in physical therapy. She was 17 when she broached the subject with Heaton about doing a tandem jump, but she was too young; she'd have to be 18 to do it.

"A little over a year ago, Lauren indicated a desire to jump. Through some contacts, I have I set it up for her and her dad, Hector Vasquez, who decided he wanted to jump, too," Heaton said.

A former Tahlequah resident, Heaton now lives in Smithville, Oklahoma. He and his family went to Florida in October for a Hall of Fame event, and while at the parachute operation, Lauren saw the skydivers and expressed her desire to jump.

"The more I thought about it, I [decided I] would jump, too. I hadn't jumped in 43 years — since 1980," Heaton said.

The parachute center, Skydive Spaceland-Houston, is in Rosharon, Texas.

"I jumped first and Lauren came out behind me and then her dad," Heaton said. "There was a free-fall photographer with us and they took stills and video."

The tandem master had a small video camera on his wrist, and Heaton said he could hear the conversation between himself and his tandem master on the video after the chute opened.

"I've got over 1,800 jumps, and I was slightly apprehensive, as I hadn't done a tandem jump before," Heaton said. "When I got to the right altitude, I pulled the rip cord. The tandem master Lauren jumped with had 17,000 jumps [to his credit]."

The jump happened at 14,000 feet, and Heaton pulled the cord at 6,000.

"I saw Houston in one direction, and Mexico in another direction," Heaton said. "It was a great experience. Free-falling is like floating on a cushion of air — we were in free-fall for 8,000 feet."

Lauren was nervous about the jump but excited at the same time. She said she had wanted to skydive for a long time and was happy when the arrangements were finally made by her grandfather.

"It was honestly the best experience I've had. I enjoyed the adrenalin rush and seeing everything as I was jumping out of the plane. Free-falling was something that was 'out of the books,'" Lauren said.

The time it took from leaving the plane until Lauren touched down was a little over a minute, but she said it felt much longer.

"I got to the door and I was thinking of how I'd waited for a year to do it, and now it's here, and I was so excited to do the free-fall," Lauren said. "I think I will do it again, and [my tandem master] Hank said I was a natural and better than most for the first time."

The tandem master and passenger are outfitted in a tandem harness with a shoulder and belly adjustment. They have a one-on-one session with their tandem partners before the jump.

"You sit in front of the tandem master and he hooks everything and tightens it up," Heaton said.

Born and raised in Tahlequah, Heaton graduated from Tahlequah High School in 1953. He served in the Army for three years after graduating from high school, then attended Northeastern State University and went on after graduating from NSU to Oklahoma State University to attend graduate school. It was then that he started skydiving in 1961 in a parachute club.

Heaton made the jump with his family 43 years after he resigned from his position with the U.S. Parachute Association as executive director. He was inducted into the Skydivers Hall of Fame in 2014.

The Skydive Hall of Fame website states that in 1981 Heaton was honored with USPA's highest non-competitive, the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributing "substantially and uniquely to USPA's greatest growth."

Heaton served as the Parachute Club of America's/USPA's executive director for 11 years until the organization moved from Monterey, California, to Washington, D.C., in the mid-1970s.

After leaving the parachute association, Heaton got into the nuclear power industry and at age 44 married. The couple bought a farm in Smithville in 1980, and Betty Heaton passed away in July 2021. Heaton said Betty did not participate in skydiving.